Creekerman

Best Day This Year

Ended the day 7 for 7. Two licenses on board...6 lines out. We kept 6 because one was an undersized Lake trout. The take-home tally was; 19 lb King, (2) identical 14 lb Kings, a 8 lb King, a 9 lb Steelhead, and a 26 inch Lake trout. Details...

2 fish on a blue-chrome splatter-back plug on 5 color leadcore

2 fish on yellow meat rig with yellow spin doctor on 10 color leadcore

2 fish on Live wire spin doctor with green meat rig on 300 copper.

The undersized Lake trout was caught on caramel dolphin spin doctor with caramel colored fly on downrigger….the only fish I've caught on a downrigger since May 17th this year.

That Live Wire SD and green meat rig combo on 300 copper has produced at least a hit on the last 6 outings on Lake Michigan and 5 fish for the box.

Fished 105 FOW out to 144.

3 for 3

Approx 120 FOW

Steelhead 4 lbs on Orange Silver Horde Plug, 3 color leadcore AT 4.5 MPH

King Salmon 6 lbs on green meat rig with frog rotator on 10-color leadcore

Approx 96 FOW

Steelhead 9 lbs on 300 copper with green meat rig and Live wire rotator

Early many boats plugged the pier heads doing basically combat fishing. I wanted nothing to do with it, so went out deeper. Sunny, but lots of low fog early. We had to do 4.5 mph to try to evade a close quarter boat. That is when the first Steelhead hit. Crazy. Not much later, the King. Around 1:00 PM the 2nd Steelhead hit down deep.

2 for 2 …. 18# King on 10-color leadcore with yellow meat rig 110 FOW about 5:30 PM. 14.5 # King on 300 copper with green meat rig 90 FOW right at sundown. No other hits. Fished last half of day until after dark.

Amazing….from the water could watch fireworks displays from Port Sheldon, Grand Haven, Holland, and 2 other places we could not identify. There were other boats out there just so they could watch all the fireworks going off.

Kind of looks like the Moonshine "Agent Orange" color/pattern...

http://www.gloutdoors.com/magnumagentorangemoonshinelure.aspx

I used some of those reflector tapes (red/white) for the sides/back of trailers/semi truck trailers. I used the white section and cut-fit to the boat side facing of the board. Then I use one of those Stanley FatMax hand-held spot lights to locate the boards. Works great for me and my needs.

Not the greatest day on Lake MI out of South Haven.

We (two on board) trolled all over the place from 6:30 AM and almost to 7:30 PM ...went 1:1 with a 13.5 lb King on a white meat rig which we boated at about 7:00 PM. No other hits at all. We tried EVERYTHING...even tied the landing net to a downrigger ball hoping to scoop something off the bottom. So we declared Lake MI "fished out" at the end of the day...with a toast and a can of Yuengling. BTW....the King was caught on 300 copper.

There was a huge number of boats out on the lake and it seemed like more in-port. Remind me not to go out of there on Memorial Day weekend. I nearly hit a large...probably 40 footer near the docks. Just got caught in a bad position, panicked, and had trouble with the throttle-shifter...but I missed it. There was a "parade" of boats both ways in and out of port and no public docking available...it wasn't pretty and neither was the language some people were using. It was crowded and a bit tense out there.

Fished all day….5 total hits. Landed just 2 Lakers (7.5-8 lbs and 2.5-3 lbs). Lost one screamer at the back of the boat that was sizable….couldn’t ID it with certainty. Two others lost just after they hit. 4 hits on downrigger all on green dolphin spoon 50 feet down in 62-66 FOW. Fished from 28 FOW out to 150 FOW. One hit on 300 leadcore with a J.J McMuffin moonshine spoon. Nothing on meat rigs or orange dodger and flies. Nothing on Dipsies, leadcore @ 2,3, and 5 color.

Went 7 for 9, all Cohos well south of the piers. All hit on orange dodger and flies except one on a yellow dodger and caramel fly. All the orange dodger and flies were blue flies except one which was on an all copper fly. We caught all ours in 40-44 feet of water. 2 were on downriggers….the rest were all on leadcore with 2,3,or 5 colors. Could not get a hit on thin spoons or Rapalas.

Must have been rough out there?

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Fishon2020

You might need to consider where your weekend trip is going to be. Next week I'm heading for Frankfort for some "combat" fishing. Last year those fish were running 20-30 lbs for most of the catch this time of year. Boats were numerable and in very close proximity. The leisure of fighting big fish for for lengthy periods and with considerable distance runs was not really there.

Good discussion you started here!

Personally, I just haven't seen any advantage to using lighter leader line when trolling Lake Michigan. I went out solo just 2 weeks ago and limited out with 3 steelies and 2 Kings. This year I've not had any skunks on any outing. Last year when I used 30 lb leaders I had 4 outings with no fish. This year I've exclusively used 40 lb mono for all my leader material. If anything, I've had better outings with the heavier line. That's just been my experience. I switched to the heavier line because most of the meat rigs and trolling flies use even heavier test line for the rig construction plus I had a few breakoffs last year on late season outings off of Frankfort. So this year, I have just stuck with the heavier leader line and seemingly with equal or better success.

I can't believe the line color selection is going to make that much difference. I personally use mostly 50 lb test Power Pro backer and a good length of 40 lb test Mono for leader material on almost all of my combos...divers, downriggers, leadcore, copper. I just make sure it is in good condition so it can hold the big ones....especially this time of the season.

The rest seems by far more important; bait/rig selection, trolling speed, depth, temp, and simply being in the right place at the right time.

Is this the weight kit you are referring to?

http://slidediver.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=62&osCsid=8f354d4d8939c1b273c2f8afacc93ada

Kevin,

What do you mean by "magnum slide diver"....is that just a slide diver with the ring on it?

I set mine at base plate setting #1 and calculate roughly 2:1 ...i.e. every 2 back reaches 1 down . It's an interpolation from the charts, but it seems to work for me. I use 65 lb Power pro line for my Max dipsies (I hate wire) and typically troll @ 2.5 mph.

I have a Yamaha FT9.9ELG kicker mounted on a Panther 4-stroke kicker mount on the transom of my 19 footer. Works great. I make certain during trailering to support the motor and mount with ratchet straps for extra transom protection. Got mine here:

http://www.jmsonline.net/panther-marine-o-b-bracket-4-stroke-10-lift-550410.htm?gclid=CN_V9efBpbUCFYp_6wodIk0ALg

I've got a 19 footer. Where would you suggest?

When do they usually pull the docks from the State Park ramps? I'd like to get out there as soon as the weather calms again.

What were the lake conditions like?

Water was rougher farther off shore than NOAA predicted. Was out alone and had moderately tough time placing lines and controlling boat...but I've done it a number of times now.

Went 1 for 1 with a 3 lb King on downrigger 30 ft down in 110 FOW. Trolled 2.3-2.7 mph from 5PM - 8:30 PM in 100-150 FOW with only the one hit.

Marked far fewer fish than on Friday PM 10-11.

2 Kings (10, 10.5 lbs), one small Coho on 3 lines total (fishing alone).

135-140 FOW, all down 115-125 ft. 1 King and Coho on meat rigs behind spin doctors, Other King on green dolphin spoon behind 8" green/glow paddle. 2 on down riggers, other on 400 copper.

Beautiful night. Flat water and like glass. Clear skies. Wind and small waves picked up about dark.

Blessings.

I've had the same show up where I've marked it before and passed over the same area more than once...multiple times. I wonder if it is underwater structure...maybe even shipwreck materials? I've had it show up on flat water days too.